Diabetes Center

General Overview

Diabetes
is a disorder of metabolism, the way the body uses digested food for growth and energy. In diabetes, the pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the body cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced, and as a result, glucose cannot enter the body's cells.

InDepth

Preventing Diabetes

Just as precancer may be detected and removed before turning into cancer, discovery of diabetes in its earliest stages can help prevent the development of full-blown diabetes. That, in a nutshell, is the idea behind the term “prediabetes.”

Given that diabetes is costly, hard to treat, and approaching epidemic levels, it’s not surprising that interest in prediabetes is growing. The majority of people with prediabetes don’t know they have it.

Living With Diabetes

Cardiovascular disease is the leading complication and cause of premature death among people with diabetes. Unfortunately, many people with diabetes do not understand the risk of cardiovascular disease or what they can do to help prevent it.

Insulin is a hormone in the body that helps control glucose (sugar) levels in the blood. It helps transport glucose from the bloodstream to cells that use the sugar for energy.
Read more about the different kinds of insulin.

Until recently, controlling blood glucose was considered the single most important step in treating diabetes. However, new studies indicate that, because diabetes can cause damage to the heart and blood vessels, controlling cardiovascular disease risk factors is equally important.

Special Topics

For roughly half of all men with diabetes, impotence is a painful fact of daily life. The cause: diabetic neuropathy, a nerve disorder that can disrupt the neural pathways responsible for creating and sustaining an erection.

Related Conditions

Natural and Alternative Treatments (By Condition)

This content is reviewed regularly and is updated when new and relevant evidence is made available. This information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with questions regarding a medical condition.